


Midtown

by karaluvsketchup



Series: Blue BlAvengers [1]
Category: Blue Bloods (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, i feel like this isn't really how tags work oh well, mostly canon-compliant from the MCU point of view, not so much from the Blue Bloods point of view, the avengers are around too but more in the background
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-08 07:32:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10381677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karaluvsketchup/pseuds/karaluvsketchup
Summary: The day the Chitauri attacked New York City was a big day for the Avengers. It was also a big day for the NYPD.(Or, what the Reagans were doing the day aliens attacked their city.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally titled Blue BlAvengers buuuut now that there's a sequel that's what I'm calling the whole series and this one gets a real title.

Danny’s day has already been eventful in a crappy kind of way, not because of the armed robbery case he and Jackie caught in the Theater District, but because he’d had a disagreement with the patrol sergeant at the scene and gotten in the guy’s face, which somehow became a big enough of a deal that Danny’s own sergeant had to be called down to the scene.  Gormley seemed to understand that the whole thing had been blown out of proportion, but Danny still might be getting a rip for it.

Anyway, they’re just about done at the crime scene when the call comes out over the radio. _“10-13, 10-13, we’re at Grand Central Terminal, shots fired, I don’t know what the hell these things are but they’re coming out of a hole in the sky.”_

“We’re ten blocks away, you coming, Sarge?” Danny asks. Gormley nods, and a minute later Danny’s got his boss in the passenger seat of his car and his partner in the back, and he’s speeding off into what appears to be a war zone in the middle of Manhattan.

****************

What had previously been a fairly quiet day for Frank suddenly becomes anything but when Garrett bursts into his office, wide-eyed and a little disheveled. “We have a rapidly developing situation in Midtown.”

Frank closes the briefing he’s been reading at his desk. “What kind of situation?”

“Initial reports are that… some kind of portal has opened in the sky and the city is under attack by what appears to be aliens.”

Frank’s about to accuse Garrett of celebrating April Fool’s Day a month late, but first he glances out the window, and he can, in fact, see a strange dark gash in the otherwise blue sky. From this distance, he can’t tell what’s coming out of it, but he can see dark specks flying down toward the city, as well as a beam of blue light going straight down toward the ground. Without knowing any more, he already has a guess as to exactly where the bottom end of that is going to be. “What else do you know, Garrett?”

Garrett crosses to the other side of the office to turn on the TV as he answers. “Just that there’s already both police and civilian casualties, as well as extensive damage to buildings and roadways. A Level Four mobilization is being called as we speak.”

The breaking news report on the TV shows Frank that his officers are already mobilized, rushing in to do their duty to protect the city, but also shows that they’re sorely outmatched. It also confirms Frank’s suspicion - Stark Tower is right at the center of all this. “I’d like to know if Tony Stark can tell us what the hell is going on,” he tells Garrett.

Garrett pulls his cell phone out of his pocket. “If he’s involved he might be to busy to take my call, but maybe his computer - or whatever it is - will tell me something.” As he starts the call, the office door swings open again and Baker rushes in.

“Commissioner, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. would like to talk to you via video call in the Situation Room,” she informs him.

“Thank you, Baker.” Well, if he knows anything about S.H.I.E.L.D. - and he knows a little, he’s had a few brief dealings with them in his time as Commissioner - they have some answers, at least.

****************

“ _Twelve-Sergeant, 10-2, return to your command forthwith for a Level Four mobilization.”_

“10-4,” Renzulli replies into his radio as he and Jamie set off at a jog back to their RMP. “Well, Reagan, things are about to get interesting.”

“Level Four?” Jamie’s seen a few Level Two’s - which involve dozens of cops gathering in response to an incident - but Level Fours are very rare, and mean that something very big, and probably very bad is going down, requiring resources to be brought in from all over the city.

“Yeah.” Renzulli says grimly. The two of them climb into the car, Jamie in the driver’s seat, and, with the lights on, hightail it back to the precinct. After going a few blocks, he turns a corner and Renzulli remarks, “What the hell is that?”

Well, it looks like some kind of portal in the sky above midtown, which is impossible, Jamie thinks, but it’s there. “I’m guessing that’s where we’re going.”

****************

Erin’s crowded around a TV with a dozen other people in the DA’s office, watching footage of a jet crashing onto Park Avenue, when Nicky calls her.

“Please tell me you’re still at school.” Erin doesn’t think she would have forgotten an early release day, and Nicky’s not the kind of kid who skips school, but she needs the confirmation that her 15-year-old isn’t out in the city somewhere.

“Yeah, mom, I’m at school, we’re in lockdown.”

“Good, good, I’m glad you’re somewhere safe, and it’s good to hear your voice. Are you okay?”

“Fine, just scared,” Nicky answers. The fear’s coming through in her voice, making her sound younger, like a kid rather than the usually overly-mature teenager she is. “Tony Stark is fighting Aliens in midtown?”

“Yeah, I’m watching it on the TV at work. We’re both far enough south, though, we should be okay.”

“What about Uncle Jamie and Uncle Danny? They’re -”

“I don’t know,” Erin cuts Nicky off. She doesn’t know whether either of her brothers is already in the impacted area of the city, but if she had to guess, she’d say that if they’re not yet, they both will be soon. They’re going to need as many police officers as possible up there. “Right now, all you and I can do is pray for our family, and for our city.”

It brings her back to the conversation she’d had with her dad the month before. _I can’t lose another brother._ And then she’d just been worked up over the potential risk of Jamie’s undercover work. This is… both Danny and Jamie in so much more danger than that. She swallows hard, determined not to cry while she’s on the phone with Nicky.

“I love you, mom.” Of course, Nicky’s smart, she can tell when her mom’s upset.

“I love you too, Nicky. Just listen to your teachers and be there for your friends, you’ll be okay.”

Erin just hopes that her reassurance isn’t an empty promise.

****************

Danny turns onto 42nd, and ends up behind a dozen other police cars and the corresponding number of officers, all climbing out of their vehicles with guns raised to the sky. The - whatever they are, aliens - are mostly flying overhead, letting off an occasional shot but not actively attacking at the moment, while the shots the officers are letting off mostly hit the bottom of the aliens’ aircraft (flying jetski’s, whatever you want to call them) without any noticeable effect.

There’s overturned cars, damaged buildings, smoke and debris, people running for their lives. It’s like Fallujah all over again, except not, because when he was over there he knew what he was dealing with. Also he wasn’t in his own city.

Gormley walks toward the front of the grouping of cars, and Danny starts to follow, but then his phone rings. “It’s the commissioner,” he says after looking at the caller ID. “I’ll follow you in a minute.” Gormley approves of that and continues up through the rows of RMP’s, and Jackie stays back with Danny.

“Dad,” he says after pushing the talk button.

“You’re already in Midtown.” Frank says, answering the question he was probably calling to ask. Of course he was tipped off by the sound of gunshots and explosions in the background.

“Yeah, the whole area’s a damn warzone.”

“I know, Danny. Listen, do what you can, but don’t try anything too heroic.” Danny knows that in this case, when his father says heroic he means something along the lines of likely-to-get-yourself-killed. “I’ve been assured that there’s a team of people responding who are much better equipped to handle this than any police officer.”

“What does that mean? The National Guard?”

“The National Guard are being activated, though that may take up to an hour, and that’s not who I was…” Frank stops in the middle of the sentence, and then says, “I’m sorry Danny, the Mayor just arrived.”

“Yeah, go, I shouldn’t talk too long either.”

“Good luck, son.” Frank says, then hangs up.

Danny stares at this phone for half a second, then sticks it in his pocket. “Stay with the car.” He tells Jackie, handing her the keys, then runs up through the cars to join his sergeant. “It’s going to be an hour before they can scramble the National Guard,” he tells Gormley when he gets there.

“National Guard?” They both duck as a stray shot goes between them to hit the hood of the police car behind them. “Does the Army know what’s happening here?” Gormley shouts back.

“Do we?”

And then a man dressed in red, white, and blue with an honest-to-god _shield_ lands on the car in front of them. Gormley half-raises his gun, then slowly puts it down as the guy starts listing out orders. “You need men in these buildings. There are people inside and they’re going to be running right into the line of fire. You take them to the basement, or to the subway, you keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th.”

“Why the hell should I take orders from you?” Gormley retorts. Then there’s an explosion half a block down, and four of the aliens suddenly drop down to surround red white and blue guy.

And he easily takes them all out in under ten seconds.

Gormley is completely willing to pass on the orders after that, and Danny belatedly realizes that red white and blue guy is Captain America.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things:  
> 1\. The obvious instinct would be to let Sergeant "why should I take orders from you?" be Renzulli, but then I figured out he's played by the same actor who plays Gormley in Blue Bloods so that had to happen.  
> 2\. It's late season 2 of Blue Bloods (because that's when The Avengers came out)


	2. Chapter 2

Jamie and Renzulli arrive at a hastily-assembled Command Center in a van with seven other officers from their precinct, and a Lieutenant meets them with orders as soon as they get there.

“Alright, what we’re dealing with here is a confirmed extraterrestrial event. These… aliens… have advanced weaponry, and they’re attacking indiscriminately, so stay alert and if one has it’s sights on you or another human being don’t hesitate to use deadly force. No warnings, no announcing yourself, just shoot. A well-aimed a nine millimeter will take them down. That said, you’re not to go seeking out confrontation, you can do a lot more good if you don’t get yourself killed. Understand?”

“Yes, sir.” The nine of them say, and the Lieutenant continues.

“Your primary role is going to be getting civilians out of harm’s way. Anyone who’s out in the streets needs to be helped into a building or into the subway system. People in buildings need to be moved down into basement levels as much as possible, and at least downward and away from the streets. We don’t have the time or the manpower to play an active role in evacuating every building, so you’ll have to make sure building security, or barring that, volunteers from the building’s occupants, know what to do, and then move on. Your squad will be working it’s way across 45th, starting at 6th.”

“This is insane,” one of the other police officers mutters to his partner once the briefing is over. The Lieutenant’s moved on to brief the next squad, but Renzulli hears him.

“It is insane, but we’re going to do our jobs so those people out there can go home to their families. And we’re going to be smart and watch each other’s backs so we can go home to our families, too,” the sergeant tells them all. “Now before we go out there, check your weapons, we’re going to be using them.”

When they get to 45th and 6th, the block in front of them isn’t actively under attack, but there’s damaged cars littering the street - some on fire, some flipped over, some sporting numerous scorch marks - and damage to the facades of several of the buildings. There’s five or six people Jamie can see from where he stands, taking shelter next to cars and whatever other cover they’ve managed to find. A few of the aliens fly overhead, twenty stories up, and fire sporadic shots at the buildings, sending showers of glass, stone, and concrete down to the street below.

Jamie runs over to a woman and a young boy cowering next to a tipped-over hot dog cart. “Let’s get you two somewhere safer,” he tells them, helping the mother up and scooping the kid up into his arms. He looks around to make sure that the way’s still clear, then heads into a nearby bank.

There’s already a couple of dozen people in the bank, safer than they would have been on the street, but still only separated from the outside by panes of glass. He hands the kid he’s carrying over to his mother and runs over to the first employee that he sees. “We need to get all of you somewhere safer, do you have basement access?”

“There’s a door to the stairwell in the back,” she answers.

“Great, those stairs go up into the rest of the building too?” She nods. “And is there a central security office for the building?” Another nod.

He gets a couple of people to volunteer to help security clear the upper floors of the building, directs everyone else into the basement, and then it’s back out into the street.

****************

He’s got a situation room full of Deputy Commissioners and Bureau Chiefs, a thousand cops deployed into most severely affected section of midtown with more flowing in by the minute, tanks rolling in from Fort Hamilton, and, apparently, the God of Thunder shooting lightning from the top of the Chrysler Building, but Frank has no idea how much worse the situation’s going to get, or how long it will take to get things under control, or how much of the city will be left when all’s said and done. Still, being a composed and authoritative presence in his department and his city during a crisis is a part of his job description, and Garrett thinks it’s time for a statement to the press, so that’s what he’s doing.

“At this time, anyone in Manhattan between 23rd and 59th is advised to stay out of the streets,” Frank tells a room of reporters and TV cameras. “Get to the basement of your building if you can, and wait for further information. To those people, and people all over the city, I urge you to remain calm. What we’re dealing with here is unlike anything we, or any other city, has ever faced, but we already know that we are a resilient city and we will get through this. I have the NYPD responding in full force, with the incoming support of police from neighboring cities, various federal agencies, and the U.S. Military. And as I’m sure most of you are aware, there is a team of people with… special abilities right at the heart of this, fighting to keep our city safe.”

“How was that?” he asks Garrett, once he’s stepped away from the microphone.

“You could have afforded to sound a little less skeptical about the Avengers.”

“Well, I am skeptical. They’re unknown, they’re untested, at least two of the have been involved in incidents that have caused substantial damage in the city in the past…”

“And they’re the best hope this city has,” Garrett cuts in.

“I hate that I can’t disagree with that.” Frank tells him.

****************

“Danny, behind you!” Jackie shouts, and Danny ducks out of the way of the blast from the alien’s weapon, just in time, and rolls behind a taxi. She takes the alien out with a headshot, and Danny stands up and shoots two more that were coming up behind that one.

“Thanks, Jack.” There’s no more coming for now, so they take a moment to catch their breath. “How’s your ammo?” He asks her.

“I still have one full magazine on my belt, two rounds left in this one. You?”

“Thirteen rounds, then I’ll have to go to my ankle piece, that’s another six.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know a good gun shop near here?” Jackie says, her tone half-joking.

“Not so much. We’ll have to make our shots count and hope for the best.” If these aliens keep on coming for much longer, though, hoping for the best just isn’t going to cut it.

They’re now two blocks from their car, up to where they can see the side Grand Central Terminal, with the tail of one of the giant space-whale things sticking out of it. There’s no more civilians in the streets as far as Danny can see, but a few people are at the doors to the Terminal, looking like they’re unsure of where to go.

The two of them run over to the side of the station. “Excuse me, NYPD,” Jackie says. “You need to get downstairs, the street isn’t safe.” Jackie and Danny gather a group of eight people and accompany them back into the station, guns drawn in case they come across any aliens inside.

“What happened there?” Danny wonders out loud, seeing a large dent in the stone wall beside the dead space-whale-thing inside the station.

“Big green dude punched the dude with the cape,” one of the guys they’re leading answers. “After the two of them rode in on that thing.” Any other day, Danny’s next question would be which drugs the guy was on that lead to him giving that answer but, at the moment, hey, seems reasonable.

****************

Jamie’s squad is on site, moving people out of the streets and into the basements of buildings, for quite a while before they see any aliens that aren’t just flying overhead.

Then, a group of about a dozen of them comes around a corner and starts shooting at Jamie and the two other police officers nearest him. They manage to take cover behind a car and return fire, taking out a few of the aliens, but then one of them throws some kind of an explosive device into the car. Jamie dives down, but not quite fast enough as he feels something cut through his uniform pants and deep into his thigh. He looks around, disoriented, and sees that the other two guys, who were more behind the engine block of the car, seem to be uninjured except for a few minor cuts.

“Reagan!” one of the officers shouts.

“I’m okay,” Jamie says, dragging himself back toward his fellow officers. The movement causes the large jagged piece of metal to come out of the wound, which makes both the pain and the bleeding worse. He doesn’t think it’s hit any major blood vessels, but the injury is easily muscle-deep and he’s leaving a trail of blood behind him.  “Are they still heading this way?”

The other officer pops up for half a second to look, then ducks back down.  “Yeah.” Then they hear a crash, an almost animal-like roar, and some more crashing. He pops up again, and says, “Oh shit, it’s the Hulk.”

After another five seconds or so, the giant green form of the Hulk goes jumping over their heads and lands halfway up a building behind them. Renzulli and a couple of other officers run out of a building after hearing the commotion, just in time to watch wide-eyed as the Hulk jumps onto the roof of another building and out of sight, leaving the street quiet, for the moment at least.

“Sarge, over here!” one of the guys with Jamie shouts, and Renzulli comes running over. As he gets close, his eyes go to the blood spilling out between Jamie’s fingers as he tries to put pressure on the cut on his leg.

“Jamie, we’re going to get you outta here,” Renzulli says, kneeling down next to him.

Jamie wants to keep doing his job, but he knows that he’ll, at best, slow down his whole squad, or at worst, pass out from blood loss, if tries to continue running around. Still, that doesn’t mean that the rest of them need to turn back. “The rest of you should keep going, I can wait in one of these buildings.”

“You sure, rookie?”

“Yeah,” Jamie says. Two of the guys help him up and support him into a restaurant where they’ve already moved a number of people into a basement storage area. On the way through the kitchen, Renzulli picks up some clean towels to improvise a bandage out of, and pretty soon Jamie’s sitting against a stack of cardboard boxes with his injured leg wrapped up and stretched out in front of him, in a small room with fifteen scared civilians. “Be safe out there,” he tells Renzulli and the other officers as they go back up the stairs.

A few minutes later he realizes that his radio took some shrapnel when his leg did, rendering it nonfunctional. He checks his cell phone. Zero bars. This could be a problem.

****************

Danny and Jackie walk back out the side entrance of Grand Central and look up just in time to see Iron Man, carrying a missile bigger than he is, guiding it upward almost skirting the side of Stark Tower and into the portal in the sky.

They don’t stare skyward for too long, though. There’s a large group of aliens approaching, more than the two of them are going to be able to fight off unless some form of backup shows up before they run out of bullets. They start firing, aiming each shot carefully, and drop a couple of the oncoming aliens and then...

They all drop at once.

Danny’s focused enough on that, that he misses the portal closing, and Iron Man falling back down to earth.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It gets a little less closely tied to MCU canon at this point, but clearly we still have some work to do...


	3. Chapter 3

Linda’s walking into the boys’ school to pick them up when her phone rings. She takes it out of her purse and is relieved to see Danny’s name on the caller ID. She hits the talk button. “Danny, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I was right in the middle of it all, but I’m good. What about you?”

“I’m fine now that I know you are. I saw what was happening on TV, it looked… pretty bad.”

“Yeah, luckily it didn’t last too long, but it was bad. I don’t know when I’ll be home, we still have a lot of work to do.”

She wishes she could see him sooner rather than later, but she gets it. “Do you have another minute, I’m picking up Jack and Sean, I bet they’ll want to talk to you.”

“Yeah, of course.”

Linda gets to the school cafeteria where all the students are gathered, and Jack and Sean come running over when they see her. They both seem a little shaken but happy to be going home. “I’ve got your dad on the phone,” she tells them once they’re back out in the hallway. “Let me put it on speaker for you.”

“Hey dad,” Jack and Sean say together once Linda pushes the speaker button.

“Hey, boys.” Danny replies.

“Were you there? Did you see the aliens?” Sean immediately asks.

“Yeah, Sean, I did.”

“A kid in my class said Iron Man  _ and  _ Captain America were there,” Jack says.

Danny laughs. “They were, along with some friends of theirs, apparently.”

“Wow.” Jack says.

“Listen boys, I might not be home for a while, so take care of your mom for me.”

“Yes dad,” they both say.

“Okay. I love you guys.”

“Love you too.”

Linda takes that as her signal to take the phone off speaker again. “You still there?” Danny asks when she puts the phone back up to her ear.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll call you again in a few hours, I need to try calling Jamie again and then get back to work.”

“Again?”

“Yeah, I tried a couple times before I called you. He didn’t pick up.”

That doesn’t sound good. “You worried?”

“Starting to be, but he might just be busy, I don’t know.”

****************

An hour after the attack is over, Baker comes into Frank’s office with a single sheet of paper. “I have an update from the Chief of Personnel.”

“Go on,” he tells her.

“We have two confirmed deaths, Officer Richard Gutierrez and Sergeant John Cooper.”

As much as it pains him every time he loses an officer, he’s relieved, having feared that that number would be much higher. “You’ll get me the phone numbers for their families?” Frank asks.

“Of course.” She replies.  “There’s another six officers critically injured, at least one of which is likely, and fifteen more with serious injuries. Then there’s about ten officers who are currently missing. I don’t have details on all of the missing officers but Sir… Officer Reagan is one of them.”

“Jamie.” He takes just a moment to process that. “What do we know?”

“According to Sergeant Renzulli, Officer Reagan sustained an injury to his leg and at his own insistence, and the Sergeant and other officers’ agreement that a delay in medical treatment wouldn’t endanger his life, he took shelter in the basement of a nearby restaurant so the rest of his squad could continue their assignment.”

“So why does that make him a missing officer?”

“That building and neighboring buildings were severely damaged in the last minutes of the attack. Search and Rescue believes that the basement is still intact, but they’re having trouble accessing it. No one’s been able to reach him on the radio or his cell phone, either.”

He nods. “Keep me posted, Baker.”

*****************

At least what they’re doing now somewhat resembles what they’d usually expect to be doing on the job. No more shooting aliens, now their main concerns are trying to maintain order while evacuating all of the scared civilians out of a square mile of the biggest central business district in the world, and what Jackie and Danny and their Sergeant are now tasked to do, starting to identify who’s dead. Most anything investigatory beyond that is the responsibility of the FBI, the NSA, other federal agencies some of which Jackie’s never heard of.

So now she and Gormley are going through a briefcase found with a body, while Danny’s stepped away to take a call. He’s only on the phone for a minute, but when he comes back he’s visibly agitated. “I need to get up to 45th.”

“What’s on 45th?” Gormley asks.

“A building collapse with my kid brother under it.”

Jackie stands up from where she was crouched next to the briefcase on the ground, closes the distance between herself and Danny, and puts a hand on his arm. “Is Jamie okay?”

Danny shrugs. “They’re pretty sure he’s alive, but no one’s been able to reach him.”

“You need Jackie to go with you?” Gormley asks.

“Nah, you two keep doing what you’re doing, I might just end up having to wait a while for the FDNY to do their thing, I don’t know.”

“They’ll get him out,” Jackie reassures Danny. He nods, but doesn’t look entirely convinced.

****************

Erin takes a deep breath as she rides the elevator up to her father’s office. He’d called her and asked her to come by 1 PP, then when she asked what it was about, had just said that he’ll tell her when she gets there. It doesn’t necessarily mean that anything’s wrong, but today it sure seems like something must be.

“The Commissioner will be out of his meeting in just a few minutes, you can wait inside,” Baker says when Erin steps out of the elevator.

Erin thanks her then goes in and takes a seat on the couch. Pretty soon, Frank walks through the door from the Conference Room. The difficult day he’s had is obvious in his face, but he smiles when he sees Erin in there. She stands up and he gives her a hug, which she returns, and he kisses her on the cheek.

“How are you holding up?” He asks as they sit down.

“I’m okay.”

“Have you talked to Nicky?”

“Yeah, a couple of times, she’s handling it all as well as can be expected. So, what’s going on, Dad?” Erin wants to know. “Besides the obvious.”

He frowns. “It’s Jamie.”

That was basically the two words she was fearing the most. “How bad?”

“We don’t know yet. He’s in the basement of a collapsed building, and FDNY is still trying to get to him.”

“But he’s… he’s okay, right? He’s alive?” That’s what Erin really needs to know - is Jamie alive, and is he going to stay that way.

“They think he’s alright, but no one’s been able to get in contact since he went down in the basement. ” He reaches over, pours a glass of water and hands it to her. She must look like she needs it right now.

****************

As he’d predicted, there isn’t much for Danny to do once he makes his way up to the building that Jamie’s supposedly somewhere underneath. It’s an older building with four or five stories, and the entire front of the building is caved in, along with parts of the buildings on either side of it. There’s two firetrucks parked in the street outside the buildings, and the corresponding number of firemen working on shifting the rubble, along with what looks like about an ESU team. It doesn’t seem like a lot of guys for this big of a building collapse, but then resources are stretched thin right now, on the way there Danny saw other buildings with similar damage that didn’t have any rescue effort yet. The fact that there’s even this many people here probably has something to do with the fact that there’s an injured police officer in the basement.

Sergeant Renzulli’s also out front of the building, and Danny heads straight for him. “Sarge,” Danny says to get Renzulli’s attention.

“Danny.” Renzulli looks from Danny, over to the building, and back to Danny. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for anything like this to happen. Any other day we would have been calling for a bus, getting him right out outta here, but…”

“Yeah, no one could do things the normal way today, I get it.” And he does get it, sure he’s pissed off, but not at Renzulli. “What exactly happened to my kid brother?”

And he tells Danny, starting with Jamie taking a large piece of shrapnel to the thigh, through to, just a couple of minutes before the battle was over, a fly-by bombing collapsing the building as Renzulli and the rest of his squad watched helplessly from half a block down. “We ran back, but it was too late to do anything,” Renzulli says solemnly. “I’ve been askin’ the firefighters, in another half hour they think they’ll be able to dig out the entrance to the basement stairs.”

Danny nods, looking over at the burned-out car Jamie had been behind when it exploded. It’s amazing that no one was more seriously hurt, though a part of Danny wishes that Jamie’s injuries had been just a little more worrisome, so he could be out of here and safe right now, even if it meant being in a hospital.

After ten minutes of standing and watching the search and rescue guys dig, the building starts to rumble, and the guys inside come running out. Danny watches, horrified, as the entire pile of rubble seems to settle by a couple of feet, letting out a large puff of dust as it goes. He doesn’t need to be told that the intact basement they’d been counting on is no longer the reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter... well maybe two, we'll see.


	4. Chapter 4

For the last hour, they’ve been hearing what Jamie is pretty sure is the the sound of people trying to dig them out, and when there starts to be more creaking and cracking overhead, he doesn’t think much of it at first. Then he shines his flashlight upward and notices that there are some new cracks in the middle of the ceiling, and they’re growing. “Hey everyone, we need to get against the walls, I don’t like the look of those cracks,” Jamie says to the other fifteen people trapped in the basement with him. They move quickly at his suggestion, and less than a minute later, the crack becomes a hole, a rapidly growing hole, and as he shields his face with his arm he can only hope that moving people out of the center of the room is even going to make a difference.

****************

Once the dust settles, the firefighters head back onto the pile of rubble, and Danny stops a fire Lieutenant to ask him, “Do you think they’re still alive down there?”

“You’re the police officer’s brother, right?” he asks.

“Yeah, Detective Danny Reagan.”

The Lieutenant glances over to the pile, probably considering what to say before he speaks. “The basement still isn’t completely caved in, there should still be pockets in the rubble so some or all of the people down there might still be uninjured. We won’t know how bad it is until we get down there.”

Of course, Jamie was already injured. “How long will that take?”

“Well, we’re not trying for the stairs anymore, the area’s too unstable, but we should be able to get into at least one section of the basement from the top, within the hour. Then we’ll have a better idea of what we’re dealing with.”

“Okay.” Danny says, not that he thinks any part of this is okay. “Can I help?”

The Lieutenant looks him over. “Yeah, let me get you an extra helmet and some gloves from the truck.”

****************

“We invited the Avengers to come down here for a joint press conference, but they declined,” Garrett tells Frank. “Apparently the only thing on their agenda is celebrating their win at a local shawarma joint, and they don’t want to change that.”

“Well, I suppose they’ve earned it,” Frank says. “Is the media aware of what’s happening with Jamie yet?”

“No, and with everything else going on, we should be alright on that front until we decide to put out a statement.”

“Good, my grandsons don’t know what’s happening with their uncle yet, and I don’t want them finding out on TV.”

****************

It seems old fashioned, Henry thinks, the women (his granddaughter and granddaughter-in-law), children (all three great-grandkids), and old folks (himself) all gathered back at the house, away from all the action. But then, he’s kind of old fashioned himself, and he’s glad to have at least some of his family here with him.

“Do you think that we’ll see Dad and uncle Jamie on TV?” Sean wonders as the news coverage shows a group of four NYPD officers ushering a group of people out a building.

_ I hope not, _ Henry thinks, but the youngest two Reagans aren’t aware of the reason that he’s thinking that, so he doesn’t say it out loud. Instead, Erin answers her nephew’s question. “There’s a lot of officers there, Sean, they can’t all be on TV.”

“Okay.” Sean says, and Jack also nods in acceptance of the answer. Nicky on the other hand exchanges a look with her mother, behind her cousins’ backs.

“Are you boys sure you don’t want to go play video games?” Linda suggests. She understands that her sons are old enough to know what’s going on in their city, but her instinct as a mother is still to want to shelter them from it.

“I want to keep watching the news.” Jack answers.

“Me too,” says Sean. The news cuts back to footage from earlier, a man with what looks like a quiver of arrows on his back, helping people out of the window of a bus, then the fellow with the cape swinging around that big hammer he carries. There’s no way around it, New York was saved by superheroes today. Henry had been around for Captain America the first time around, he’d read the comic books as a kid during World War 2, but he never imagined that something like today would happen. And now he feels pretty sure that there’s more of the same that will come within his lifetime.

****************

An hour and a half after the basement collapsed, they’ve finally moved enough of the rubble to open up a small hole, a foot across, into the basement. “Fire department, can anybody hear me?” the firefighter directly over the hole calls out. Danny’s about eight feet away, but he can hear several voices answering. He’s almost ready to feel relieved, but he needs to be sure that he’s hearing one voice in particular, so he scrambles around a few other firemen, and lays on his stomach with his head over the hole. “Jamie?” He yells down into the basement.

“Danny, is that you?” Jamie’s response comes immediately.

“Yeah, it’s me, we’re going to get you out. How is everyone down there?”

“There’s sixteen people down here including myself, one woman has head injury, she’s been unconscious since the ceiling came down but she’s still breathing. Other than that, a few people with broken bones but nothing major.”

“We’ll have the hole wide enough to start getting people out soon,” one of the firefighters says.

“What about you, Jamie? Are you alright?” Danny needs to know.

“Uh, yeah, I think so. My leg -”

“Yeah, I know, that’s why you went down there in the first place.” Danny cuts in.

“Well, that, but it’s also pinned under a metal beam, I don’t think it’s broken but getting it out could be a problem.”

Danny swears under his breath, then says, “don’t worry, baby brother, we’ll figure it out. Now, I’m going to go call and let the family know we found you, but I’ll stay close until you’re out, okay?”

“Yeah.”

****************

It’s another half hour before the firefighters have cleared out a pathway to where Jamie is. They lead an older woman who was next to him out toward the ladder, and try to persuade the four-year-old girl at Jamie’s other side to go, but she’s maintaining a tight grip on Jamie’s jacket, so she gets to stay for the moment. A minute later, an EMT comes in, followed closely by Danny, who’s wearing a borrowed FDNY helmet. Danny’s eyes immediately go to the point just below Jamie’s knee where his leg disappears beneath the rubble, and he looks just about as scared as Jamie’s ever seen him. “Danny, I’m okay,” Jamie tries to reassure his older brother.

“Hi, can you tell me your name?” the EMT asks. She’s a few years older than Jamie, her face smudged with dirt and her uniform covered in dust - Jamie’s not the first person she’s helped out of a bad situation today, and he won’t be the last.

“Officer Reagan,” he says, then amends himself, “call me Jamie.”

“Alright, Jamie, I’m Tina. Now, I see we’ve got a couple of things going on with that left leg, are you hurt anywhere else?” Jamie shakes his head. “And who is this?” Tina asks, indicating the small child at Jamie’s side.

“Mari Gonzales,” Jamie answers. “She’s not hurt except for a few scrapes and bruises, but she’s pretty scared. Her mom was hurt, she’s kind of attached herself to me.” 

“Okay, she can stay here for the moment. Mari, are you feeling okay?” Mari looks up and nods. “We’ll get both you and Officer Jamie out of here really soon.” Tina assures her, before looking back to Jamie. “Alright, let me get some vitals on you really quick.” She takes his pulse and blood pressure and declares his vitals to be pretty good. “So your leg’s been trapped for about two hours?”

“Two hours twenty minutes,” Danny corrects her.

She nods at him and then continues. “How does it feel? Numb, painful?”

Jamie considers that. “It’s a little painful, but mostly just feels like pressure, I think it’s more just stuck than really injured.”

“Can you wiggle your toes?”

He tries, and they move, though it takes more effort than he thought it would. “Yeah, a little.”

“Alright.” Tina turns to the nearest fireman. “How soon can we get this leg freed?”

“Well, we can move enough of the smaller stuff pretty quickly, but this beam… we don’t have the right equipment, we might need to wait for a rescue truck to get here.”

“How long will that take?” Danny demands.

“Today? Every rescue company in the city has it’s hands full, it’s hard to say.”

Tina shakes her head and starts digging in her bag. “If we don’t get the weight off in the next hour or two, he could be in trouble.” Jamie looks at her quizzically, so she explains. “It usually takes about four hours for crush syndrome to develop.”

Jamie doesn’t know exactly what that entails, but it sounds bad. He looks up at Danny, who looks like he’s about to lose it. “Danny, why don’t you take Mari outside while they figure this out?” Jamie suggests.

“Jamie -”

“Please.” Jamie pleads. Danny sighs, and nods. “Mari, my brother’s going to take you out of here now,” Jamie tells the little girl, and she releases her grip on his coat and lets Danny pick her up.

****************

The kid kicked him out. Jamie wanted him to leave before talking to the EMT about just how much trouble he’s in, which is testament to just how bad Danny is at the whole hand-holding thing. If he were Erin, hell, if he were Joe, he could have helped Jamie out by just being there for him, but Danny just doesn’t work that way. He needs a problem he can take action on, and right now it’s out of his arena.

When he gets to the top of the ladder, he carries the girl out over the field of rubble and to the street, where six or eight of the other people from the basement, who were lucky enough not to be injured, are gathered. Someone hands them both bottles of water and wraps Mari in a blanket. “Is Jamie still down there?” a young man in a chef’s coat asks.

“I’m afraid so.” Danny answers.

“We were lucky to have him down there with us,” another man says. The rest of them nod in agreement. “He kept everyone calm while we waited to be rescued, and then he was the one who realized the ceiling was about to go. Saved at least five or six lives.”

“Yeah, he’s a hell of a cop.” Danny says proudly. That’s when he notices a couple of the other rescued people looking down the street, and he follows their gaze. “I’ll be damned…” he mutters under his breath, because what they’re looking at is Captain America and his friend with the cape and the hammer walking down the street.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, my four-chapter fic is now a five-chapter fic.


	5. Chapter 5

The two Avengers are already looking over toward the collapsed building so Danny waves to get their attention and calls out, “Hey! Do you two have a couple of minutes? We could really use your help.” They look at each other, shrug, and come jogging over, and Danny steps away from the group of victims to talk to them. “Captain Rogers, right?” Danny asks, and the Captain nods. “And sorry, your name is?” Danny asks the other large, muscular man.

“Thor, Prince of Asgard.”

“It’s an honor to meet you both.” Danny says, because what else do you say when meeting a couple of superheroes. “I’m Detective Danny Reagan, I know you’ve already done a lot today, I hope I’m not interrupting anything too important.”

“We’re just on our way to dinner with the team,” Captain Rogers says. “But we have a few minutes to spare. What can we do for you?”

“My brother’s in the basement of this building, his leg’s pinned in by a heavy metal beam and the firefighters don’t have the equipment they need to lift it. I’m hoping that a coupla guys like you two would be able to help with that.”

“Should be a simple enough matter.” Thor declares. Captain Rogers nods in agreement.

****************

“How you doing, kid?”

“About the same, Danny, it’s been less than ten minutes since you left.”

“Well, you’re going to be out of here in another ten.” Jamie detects a bit of bravado in Danny’s voice, like when he’s explaining how he’s just cracked a case.

“There’s a rescue squad here already?” one of the firefighters asks.

“Even better. Everyone, meet Captain Rogers and Thor.”

Everyone stops what they’re doing and just kind of stares at the two large, blond men who just walked in behind Danny. “Danny,” Jamie says. “You went and found a couple of the Avengers?”

Danny shrugs. “Well, they happened to be in the neighborhood, I just asked.”

“We’re happy to help.” Captain Rogers says, sizing up the beam that’s on top of Jamie’s leg. “One of us on either side of him should do it,” he tells Thor.

“Verily,” Thor agrees, and he steps over Jamie to get into position.

“You’re sure?” a firefighter questions. “The beam itself must weigh at least half a ton, and it’s still got a lot of brick and concrete on top of it, too.”

Thor slides one hand in under the beam, doesn’t actually move it, but tests it’s weight. “Yes, we have the required strength.”

“Alright, then you’ll lift it on my count,” Tina the EMT says. “Danny, you’ll help me move Jamie clear of the beam once they lift.” 

“Okay,” Danny says, crouching down next to Jamie.

“Alright, we’re ready.” Tina says once everyone’s in position. “Everybody on my three… One, two, three.” Jamie squeezes his eyes shut for a few seconds as the pressure comes off his leg, and he feels his brother and the EMT pull him back and to the side. There’s a  _ clunk _ as the two superheroes set the beam back down. 

“Wow. Thank you.” Jamie says sincerely to the Captain Rogers and Thor.

“We’re happy to help,” the Captain replies. “Is anyone else still trapped?”

“I know there’s two civilians in that corner,” Jamie answers, gesturing toward where a young couple is stuck, and the firefighters are just starting to dig in that direction.

“There’s actually a few large pieces of concrete, we were planning on having to dig around, but if the two of you can budge them…” the FDNY lieutenant tells them.

“Say no more,” says Thor, and he and Captain Rogers follow the lieutenant farther into the basement.

****************

Tina climbs up the ladder right before the firefighters hoist Jamie up on a litter. Then Danny goes up, followed by Captain Rogers, Thor, the last two victims who were trapped but not injured, and the rest of the FDNY guys. As the last man climbs up and declares the basement to be clear, everyone stops what they’re doing and cheers.

Danny turns to the two Avengers. “Thank you, if there’s ever anything at all that I, or the NYPD can do for you, just say the word.”

“It was no trouble, though we should get going if we are to be on time for our celebratory feast,” Thor says.

“Though…” Captain Rogers says thoughtfully. “You could help us out with one thing right now. What’s shawarma?”

Danny grins. “It’s middle eastern food, meat grilled on a spit. You’ll like it.”

****************

Erin’s in the kitchen with Nicky setting out sandwich fixings for everyone when her cell phone rings. It hasn’t been very long since Danny called, so she’s a little surprised when her phone rings and she sees his name on the caller ID again. “Hello?” she answers.

“Hey sis, good news. We got him out.”

That’s a surprise. “Did something change? You said it might take hours.”

“Well, I found a way for it not to take hours. Funny story, I’ll tell you all about it later.”

“But Jamie’s okay?”

“Yeah, I think so. His leg’s a little messed up, they’re taking him to, uh -” Danny moves the phone away from his face but Erin can still hear him say, “Tina, which hospital are we going to?” Then a moment later, he says into the phone, “Elmhurst, at least it’s Queens and not Jersey.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you there.”

“Great, is my wife there?”

“Yeah, she’s just in the living room, I’ll go grab her.”

Erin walks back to the living room, Nicky right behind her, and as soon as she enters the room, Sean turns around and says, “Aunt Erin! Dad’s on TV! Captain America and Thor were with him a minute ago!”

And there Danny is in the background of the shot, holding his phone, standing in front of a collapsed building as the headline at the bottom of the screen declares  _ Avengers Save Building Collapse Victims.  _  “He’s also on the phone. Linda?” Erin says, offering the cell phone to her sister in law. Linda takes the phone and steps out of the room to talk to Danny. “The TV show anyone else they might know?” Erin asks her grandfather. 

Henry shakes his head, then mouths, “Jamie?” but doesn’t say it out loud. Erin nods and smiles to tell him that there’s good news.

A couple of minutes later, Linda comes back in and hands Erin her phone back. “Boys, turn the TV down for a minute, there’s something I need to talk to you about,” she tells her sons.

****************

After spending all night in the emergency room, Jamie arrives his dad’s house a little after seven in the morning with a pair of crutches he’s supposed to use for several days, prescriptions for pain meds and antibiotics, and orders to take it easy and see his own doctor the next day for a wound check and some follow-up blood tests. He’ll be off work for a couple of weeks, but when it comes down to it he was lucky, he knows he could have very easily died yesterday.

Erin steps ahead of him to open the door, and as soon as Jamie hobbles into the kitchen both Sean and Jack jump up from where they’re eating breakfast and run over to hug him. “Uncle Jamie!”

“Careful!” Linda tells the boys as she walks in behind Jamie. They listen to their mom and get a little less boisterous with their hugs.

“Did you really get saved by Captain America and Thor?” Jack asks.

“Yeah, yeah I did.” Jamie tells him. “Actually, the big green guy saved me too, when I was still out on the street.”

“Whoa.” Sean and Jack say together. 

Henry comes up behind the boys and they step out of the way so he can hug Jamie too. “I’m glad you’re alright, Jamie.”

Jamie nods in agreement. “It was a close one.” 

“Way too close for comfort,” his grandfather agrees. “Well, do you want to sit down in here or should we bring you some breakfast on the couch?”

****************

Baker meets Frank at the elevator, a stack of file folders in her hands. “Good morning, Commissioner.”

“Good morning, Baker. Did you get any sleep last night?” Frank had been home for all of six hours, working late and then coming in early, and she had still been hard at work when he left the night before.

“A few hours, sir,” she answers with a smile, always the professional. “I have your schedule for the day, latest statistics on yesterday’s attacks, and a few press releases for your approval. Also, the Avengers are requesting that we provide a perimeter around a small area of Central Park, for about an hour later this morning.”

“Did they say what they plan on doing there?”

“No… no they did not.”

Frank sighs. “Well, see if we can find that out.” It’s a small request compared to what they’ve done for the city, and for his family in the last twenty four hours, so he’ll probably approve what they’re asking for either way. But still, he doesn’t like being kept in the dark. Especially if they continue to be active in New York, he’ll need to cultivate a working relationship with the Avengers. And he’s almost certain that this is just the beginning.

****************

Danny makes it to sunday dinner just in time for grace - after a few days of getting diverted by bigger things, he was back to trying to wrap up his armed robbery case, and Jackie had called with a lead just as church got out. He kisses Linda on the cheek as he sits down, and then Erin says grace, with a little extra thanks that all of them are there.

“I hear the boys are going back to school tomorrow.” Frank says as they all start eating.

“Yup.” Jack confirms.

“My school’s opening again on wednesday,” Nicky adds.

“It’s amazing how quickly things are getting back to normal,” Linda says. 

And it’s true that while there’s still several blocks of midtown that are completely closed off to the public, outside of that area, most of the city is quickly getting back to business as usual. For the most part, at least. “Or back to a new normal. Now that we know what’s out there, nothing’s going to be really normal again,” Danny says.

“Well that’s true, especially for those of us who are charged with keeping the population safe.” Frank agrees. “We know there’s the possibility of another incident like this one, we know what kind of help is out there, and we can be more prepared the next time. And hopefully everyone will be able to go about their lives with the confidence that if there is a next time, we’ll get through it again.”

Jamie nods and smiles. “Amen to that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and double thank you to the people who have commented! 
> 
> That's it for now but sequels might end up happening - at least three of the Netflix series already have significant NYPD involvement, and parts of Age of Ultron, Doctor Strange, and obviously Spiderman: Homecoming are set in the city. Also I'm pretty sure the Blue Templar are tied to Hydra to some extent, so there could be some post-CATWS stuff to work out.


End file.
